In the decade or so since its 1955 introduction, the Ford Thunderbird came to attract a solid following from female motorists. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the 1966 T-Bird convertible featured on these pages was intended to please a lady.

Throughout his professional life, Carlo Abarth (1908-1979) won acclaim for wringing great amounts of performance from cars with tiny engines. On occasion, these were cars of his own design. More often than not, though, his shops in Turin, Italy, founded in 1949, turned out vigorous vehicles that took as their starting points other manufacturers’ products. Read more...

There’s an old and very common expression for describing someone who finds himself mired in difficult circumstances. He’s said to be “up a creek without a paddle.” That almost literally describes the situation in which George Hamlin found himself when he first laid eyes on the vintage truck featured here. Read more...

The B-series Mack trucks produced from 1953 to 1966 were one of the most familiar commercial-vehicle lines of the post-World War II era. However, this successful truck family begs the question: If that’s the “B” model, then what was “A”?

Yosemite National Park occupies 747,956 acres in east central California. It is home to natural wonders like imposing El Capitan, the world’s largest exposed granite mononlith; towering sequoia trees, some of which are thought to be thousands of years old; and breathtaking waterfalls fed by snowmelt. President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill in 1864 that granted the Yosemite Valley to the State of California as a natural preserve, an event seen as a precursor to the national parks movement. Noted naturalist John Muir was instrumental in Yosemite becoming established as a national park on October 1, 1890.

An international society of automotive historians has named Collectible Automobile® magazine—a companion publication to Consumer Guide® Automotive—the winner of its top award for the presentation of history in a periodical. Read more...

As James Longoni’s sparklingly restored Dodge ½-ton pickup seen here clearly demonstrates, by 1960, the outlines of the modern pickup truck had been drawn. Stylishness and a rising level of creature comforts would increasingly be expected. America’s hardy workhorse was being turned into a polished thoroughbred.

Part car and part truck, the sedan delivery had been on the American motoring scene since the late Twenties. It was a convenient and fairly economical vehicle for tradesmen and small-business operators whose hauling needs didn’t warrant the use of a large truck or required a more genteel presence.

The quixotic tale of a doomed luxury car and an interview with a veteran car designer turned out to be golden opportunities for two freelance contributors to Collectible Automobile® magazine, a companion publication to Consumer Guide® Automotive. Read more...

In the late Nineties, Volkswagen tickled the automotive world’s fancy when it brought out the New Beetle that called to mind the iconic shape of the round little car that put VW on the map. However, there was a time many years earlier when people thought that a different “new” Beetle was coming.